COUGARS HIT THE ROAD FOR TWO IN CALIFORNIA: Washington State University hits the road for a pair of contests this week, facing UC Riverside, Wednesday and Fresno State University, Friday.

NEXT UP: Following its matchup at Fresno State Friday, the Cougars will have two weeks off to focus on finals before hosting The Ohio State University, Saturday, Dec. 15 at Beasley Coliseum.

LISTEN IN: Fans can follow the Cougars during the regular season on Pullman’s KHTR (104.3 FM), KQQQ 1150 AM or go to WSUCougars.com and listen to with a subscription to Cougar All Access. Steve Grubbs will be calling the play-by-play for the Cougs this season.

COUGAR ATHLETICS ON THE WEB: Connect with Washington State University Athletics on the web at WSUCougars.com, the official website of Cougar Athletics and on twitter @WSUWomensHoops. Fans can follow along on the Cougars Gameday page at http://www.wsucougars.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/gameday.html.

GALDEIRA OPENS CAREER WITH BIG NUMBERS: Freshman guard Lia Galdeira made history with her 33-point point performance in the double-overtime season-opening loss at Minnesota. Galdeira set a WSU freshman record for points in a game and finished the game 12-of-27 from the floor, 7-of-8 at the free throw line and five steals. The Kamuela, Hawaii native broke the previous record of 28 points shared by Nikky Mohr (Puget Sound, 11/26/83) and Jazmine Perkins (Northern Colorado, 11/28/08). She was later named to the Best Buy Classic all-tournament team after posting 12 points, six rebounds and three steals in the overtime defeat to South Dakota State. Galdeira followed that weekend with her first career double-double, 11 points and 13 rebounds, to go along with six assists and six steals in her home debut against Monmouth. She followed that performance with 15 points and six steals against Wisconsin.

COUGARS PICKED 10TH IN PAC-12 PRESEASON POLL: Washington State University was picked tenth in 2012-13 Pac-12 Conference women’s basketball preseason coaches’ poll. The Cougars were placed ahead of the University of Oregon and University of Arizona who were voted No. 11 and No. 12, respectively. Stanford was voted the preseason favorite after collecting a maximum number of points (121) and first-place votes (11).

ABOUT UC RIVERSIDE: UC Riverside enters Wednesday’s game with a 3-2 record after dropping a 72-68 decision to Princeton last Friday. The Highlanders have three players averaging in double-figures with Tre’Shonti Nottingham leading the way with 27.6 ppg. Head coach John Margaritis is in his ninth year at UCR and owns a 130-122 career record at the school. Last year, in the inaugural meeting between WSU and UCR, the Cougars posted a 74-35 victory in Pullman.

NOYES CLIMBING WSU RECORD BOOKS: Senior center Carly Noyes continues her climb up WSU’s career top-10 in blocks and starts. Noyes is 15 blocks away from breaking Holly Zapel’s top mark of 147 and is on pace to break Katie Appleton’s record for career starts of 110. Noyes enters Wednesday game with 93 career starts and 133 career blocks.

ANOTHER CHALLENGING NONCONFERENCE SLATE IN 2012-13: Highlighted by home games against Wisconsin, BYU and Ohio State, WSU’s 2012-13 nonconference schedule features games against nine teams that reached the postseason last year, including six NCAA Tournament teams and last year’s WBI Champions, Minnesota in the season-opener.

FIVE CONFERENCE GAMES TO BE TELEVISED: WSU will play five of its Pac-12 Conference games on the Pac-12 Networks this season. The games that will be televised will be WSU’s game at UCLA, Jan. 11, both games against the University of Washington, Jan. 15 and 20, the Feb. 17 game at University of Oregon on the Pac-12 Networks Oregon/Washington and the regular-season finale at home against Stanford University, Feb. 26 on the Pac-12 Networks.

PAC-12 TOURNAMENT MOVES TO SEATTLE: With its new partnership with Force 10 Sports Marketing, LLC, the Seattle Sports Commission and Seattle Center, the Pac-12 Conference will bring the Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Tournament to KeyArena in Seattle in 2013, and will deliver unprecedented national television exposure to its women’s basketball teams and student-athletes. The new agreement, which runs through 2015, moves the tournament to the first full week in March to strengthen television windows and maximize national exposure. ESPN2 will televise the championship game, while all other games will be carried nationally on the Pac-12 Networks. The 2013 tournament will be played March 7-10.

WSU NOTCHES MOST WINS SINCE 1995-96: Washington State finished the year with 13 wins, the most by a Cougar team since the 1995-96 team recorded 17 victories. The Cougars also posted their second double-digit win season since the 2000-01 with both double-digit win campaigns coming under head coach June Daugherty, notching 13 victories this season and 11 in 2008-09.

COUGARS SET SINGLE SEASON MARKS: As a team, WSU set the record for rebounds in a season with 1,267, grabbing nearly 100 more than the previous record. The Cougars scored the sixth-most points in a season, made the fourth most three’s, recorded the fifth most assists and the second-most steals in single season history.

COUGARS CLOSE OUT SEASON WITH PAC-12 TOURNAMENT RUN: Washington State University closed out its 2011-12 season with a couple wins at the Pacific Life Pac-12 Tournament in Los Angeles. The Cougars beat No. 6 Oregon State in the opening round, knocked off No. 3 seed USC on its home floor to advance to the semifinals held in the Staples Center. WSU then matched No. 2 seed California for 30 minutes before falling in its semifinal matchup.

FINAL RPI RANKINGS RELEASED: After playing one of the toughest nonconference schedules in the country and with an equally challenging Pac-12 slate, Washington State finished the season No. 106 in the RPI rankings released by NCAA.com, up 50 spots from last season. Seven of the Cougars opponents finished in the top 50.